Megaranto Leads Asian

Indonesian grandmaster Susanto Megaranto is the surprise current leader on 4.5 points after five rounds in the 6th Asian Individual Championships. He is undefeated to date having only conceded a draw to GM Zhao Jun in the fourth round. Three players - Gopal, Zhang Pengxiang and Zhao Jun - are close behind with 4 points apiece.

RP's International master Darwin Laylo and GM Antonio are the highest placed locals with 3.5 points to their names. It was early in round 2 that Laylo caused an upset of sorts when he defeated GM Chanda Sandipan (2563) of India. Laylo was perhaps a tad lucky when the Indian played 28...Bc2. Might have been a miscalculation by Sandipan but it left him on the backfoot in the endgame.



My thanks to Manny Benitez for providing PGNs (up to round 4). Apparently these came courtesy of the NCFP so I guess I should extend my gratitude to them, too. But the workflow from whoever is coding the games to the NCFP webmaster is obviously still needing some work. Today, the only games I see on the NCFP site are from round 1!